Coolie begar
Topic: The National Movement: Gandhian Era · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 3 "Mahatma Gandhi and the Nationalist Movement"
Meaning
Begar means forced labour with no pay. Coolie begar was the rule in Kumaun, in the hills of today's Uttarakhand, that made villagers carry the loads of travelling colonial officials for free. People hated it as an everyday insult. During the Non-Cooperation Movement of 1921, the peasants of Kumaun refused to carry these loads. It was one of many local protests that people carried out in Gandhi's name.
Example
In January 1921, at the Uttarayani fair in Bageshwar (Kumaun), villagers led by Badri Datt Pande promised never to do coolie begar again. They threw the begar registers into the river.
Don't confuse with
- Begar in Awadh: also unpaid labour, but there the taluqdars (big landlords) forced it on their tenants. In Kumaun the labour was demanded by colonial officials.
Related concepts
- Gandhi as Mahatma
- Shahid Amin
- Gandhi's dhoti and loincloth
- Charkha
- Khadi
- Linguistic Pradesh Congress Committees
- Praja Mandal
- All India States Peoples Conference
- Bijolia movement
- Abul Kalam Azad